Trends on Tuesday: What Are You Asking Your Phone?

What’s the weather like? When does the next movie start? What time does Target close?

These are just a few questions that I may ask my phone on any given day. According to a recent Mobile Voice Study led by Google, I’m not the only having conversations with my phone. 55% of teens aged 13-18 use voice search every day, while 56% of adults said using voice search makes them feel tech-savvy.

The study examined the smartphone habits of 1,400 Americans, age 13 and older, revealing that among voice search users:

40% use voice search to ask for directions

39% use voice search to dictate a text message

38% talk to their phones while watching TV and 41% wish voice search could help them find the remote control

32% use voice search to make a phone call

51% of teens and 32% of adults use voice search just for fun

27% use voice search to check the weather

When asked to pick one thing they wished they could ask their phones to do for them, 45% of teens selected “send me a pizza,” while the most popular request among adults was “tell me where my keys are.”

Mobile searchers, no matter their age, are looking for answers in a mobile moment – they want answers immediately, in context. That’s why it is important for your agency’s website to provide valuable answers to the questions your audience is asking. You must also make sure the content is in an adaptive format so voice search tool such as Google Voice, Siri and Cortana can easily consume the information.

For more ideas, check out the Mobile User Experience Guidelines and Recommendations.Treci Johnson is a Public Affairs Specialist at the Department of the Interior, and a member of the MobileGov Community of Practice. She is the current author of the Trends of Tuesday blog series.

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